Hi
On reading several posts, there appears to be quite a large difference in what some people claim for food and lunch allowance
We are a family of four and get an allowance of £420 per month for food. Our claim for school lunches and pack up was removed and we were advised this had to come out of the £420 per month.
Even my I calculate on £1.80 per day for each of us that comes to over £80 per month which is quite large portion of the food allowance.
Is this always the case or should the food allowance have been increased to allow for the fact we all need school lunch/pack up 5 days a week?
Last edited by Random Lady on Mon Nov 22, 2010 11:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
F&F approved May 13 - just awaiting Completion Certificate - moving to a new Debt Free life !!
Hi
420 pounds for a family of four is well below the top end gudelines for housekeeping and meals at work/school meals.
Sounds as if your expenses wre made to fit a certain dividend level
Who are you with ?
Regards
CCCS guidelines would allow a maximum of £488 for housekeeping and a further £106 on top for meals at work and school meals, so your budget does sound on the low side.
Budgets should be based on actual expenditure rather than guidelines however - how much are you actually spending in total?
Why did they remove your lunch allowance? Are they trying to compensate for a reduced income or other increased/new allowance? It seems strange they would do this to increase payments into the iva for no reason.
I think for food and household they allowance should not be 'what you spend'. It should provide a set allowance to manage a home correctly and provide proper meals. People driven to eating cereal and having to provide 3 meals a day for £3 a head in ridiculous over anything but the shortest term.
Also, with any major payout, you cant take the cost from your bills, so it often comes from household and this just compounds the problem.
I think it should be on what you spend as long as that is not excessive.
Bear in mind that we each manage our budgets differently and eat different foods. There is no need for anyone to have to rely on basics foods all the time.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
Hi
We are with DFD. The food is really becoming a struggle now, especially this month as neither of us get paid until the last working day of the month and it falls mid week this month. At annual review in September I put an increase down for the amount of food but it didn't get taken into account and the payments remained the same. We do pay £866 per month which is a lot.
We managed to get a Court Order quashed and the money from that was due to be added to our original payment of £758 two years into the IVA but we were upfront and honest and phoned DFD straight away so it could be added to the monthly payment at that time (which was about 1 year ago now). When we phoned DFD I asked if some of that extra money could be reallocated to food until it should have been paid over in line with the original IVA but I was told that was not possible and the lady told me to use my contingency of £50 per month but that leaves me with no back up funds for emergencies at all.
We spend around 500 per month on food and £80 a month on lunch/pack up. I can cope with paste sandwiches at lunch but I need to ensure the kids have good food at lunch especially during the winter.
Can my IP review this even though it was only done in September?
Last edited by Random Lady on Fri Nov 19, 2010 7:18 am, edited 1 time in total.
F&F approved May 13 - just awaiting Completion Certificate - moving to a new Debt Free life !!
This seems a route that could ultimately lead to IVA failure. Seems like you need to have some firmer words with your IP to get a more realistic budget established moving forward. I was shocked to hear that you were told to use your contingency each month for food!
Debt problems, what debt problems? I'm not in De Thames, I'm in De Nile.
IVA failure is what I really don't want to happen but at the same time I would like to be able to feed my family decent meals and buy a bit of fruit once in a while for the kids. We don't buy expensive food, mostly use Iceland and Asda but visit Lidl and Aldi if time permits (we both work full time as well).
If we had been given an allowance for school lunch/pack up I'm sure things would have been so much easier!!
F&F approved May 13 - just awaiting Completion Certificate - moving to a new Debt Free life !!
I hope Declan will pick up on this next week as you should not be using contingency allowance for school meals and lunches.
This should be a seperate allowance.
Sharing from experiences of dealing with debt
The greatness of a man is not in how much wealth he acquires, but in his integrity and his ability to affect those around him positively.
Bob Marley. http://kallis3.blogs.iva.co.uk
That is so unfair, food has to be bought, its the one thing that none of us can live without, starving is not an option. I never realised until today that there was actually a seperate allownace for pack up/lunches. Both hubby and daughter alternate between pack up and lunches and our school seem to be putting the price up every year.
I don't buy really expensive stuff but I do like to buy fresh as much as possible, Aldi do have the super 6 and occasionally asda have set things on roll back.
If I'm working it out correctly based on a 30 day month we have £420/30 = £14 per day/4 people = £3.50 per day allowance for 3 meals. If the kids have school lunch that is currently £1.80 so that gives me £1.70 for each child for breakfast and evening meal. I have really struggled through the first year juggling things and borrowing a bit from car tax money here and there but it has to go back the next month so I have the money for the car tax when I need it. I had really hoped I would have been given a better allowance at review but petrol has increased and with a harse winter predicted I'm restricting the heating (my son has already had a bad cold/throat infecton and been off school for a week an that is before the really bad weather arrives). We didn't actually get told what our allowances were afer the review, just a letter confirming that the payment would stay the same, although many outgoings had increased. We did both get small pay increases (I changed job but work in Local Government so no pay increase for the next two years, increased pension contributions and jobs on the line!).
I completely understand my husband and I got in this situation by ourselves but we thought the IVA was the best way of giving our creditors a good payback (we never wanted to get out of paying them) and at the same time giving us a comfortable standard of living.
It is hard in an IVA and I didn't expect it to be a doddle so hats off to all those who have managed to complete their IVAs. At the minute, 46 months to go seems a long long way away!!!!
F&F approved May 13 - just awaiting Completion Certificate - moving to a new Debt Free life !!
This budget is not right, and hopefully Declan can intervene on your behalf with whoever is expecting you to live on an unrealistic food allowance, and took the decision not to allow this to be increased. I wonder if their family could live on the same budget as you?
Thanks for that Melanie. I've managed (so to speak) until now but that is robbing one part of my budget to fund the other which is exactly why we got in the position we are in now!!
Here's hoping Declan can assist?
F&F approved May 13 - just awaiting Completion Certificate - moving to a new Debt Free life !!
intresting thread ! originally our budget for food was set at £500 ( started iva 2005 ) i included baby formula milk as a seperate amount at that time . our food allowance is now £600 we are a family of 6 !! although my son in army(2008 he joined) , comes home weekends and eats his way thru contents of every cupboard ! the younger ones have cooked school dinner (per day) £2.00 first child 10p discount for subsequent kids. i dont mind that as they get a hot dinner during winter months and they seem to like them or thy have sandwiches if they dont like what is on the menu. both myself and hubby have lunchbox for work ! sometimes we really struggle and there is nothing in , i am now a frequent shopper in my mums cupboards and fridge !!!! our allowance works out at £3.95 per day per person not inc son who only comes home at weekend. so i shop around , find the bargains, sometimes have a really cheap week , then others are bad . i seem to still be robbing peter to pay paul, like other poster dip into contigency, or the money seat aside for car tax etc then seriously struggle the month the care tax is due ! however im into yr 6 im not going to worry about it now. everything was honest on our i&E, they have payslips etc. just some months i still seem to be juggling money , but this time it isnt to creditors !!! i have started charging my son £20 a month for his washing, i feel mean but he has a decent salary and he dumps his washing on floor when he comes home every friday. said his 20 pays for the elec and the washing powder !!! .... am i mean ????
